In advance of the Super Bowl, the New York Times the other day did one of those stories about the local flavor of New Orleans. This particular flavor is Tabasco, the hot sauce made in Louisiana by the McIlhenny Co., the family business whose former chief executive once owned a stake in the Saints.

The Times story highlights the company's history and its ties to football and the Super Bowl—"The Super Bowl event is the single biggest month for hot sauce. It's huge," McIlhenny's current CEO says at one point—before drizzling in an anecdotal dash of this:

Others, like John Madden, the former football coach and television analyst, pour the sauce on practically everything they eat.

"I've had thousands of meals with him, and there is not a food out there that he doesn't use Tabasco on," Madden's agent, Sandy Montag, said. "He puts it on food from the time he wakes up. For him, it's like toothpaste."

Boom! That he treats Tabasco like toothpaste pretty much reinforces everything we knew about John Madden, and makes us miss him all the more, particularly in the wake of Sunday's Jim Nantz-Phil Simms, mayonnaise-on-white-bread Super Bowl.